Graded Assignment 3.14 Essays - English-language Films, Film

Graded Assignment 3.14 Cry the Beloved Country E ssay During the next several lessons you will write a nessay about the novel Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Essays must: Be at least 500 words (two pages dbl spaced) Contain at least three quotes from the text to support your ideas. Your essay may be a character analysis or a examination of the social issues discussed in the novel. Choose from the options below : Character Analysis Stephen Kumalo Write an essay describing the character of Stephen Kumalo. Choose three to five major characteristics to highlight about Kumalo, using specific evidence from the text to back up your argument. Be sure to describe how Kumalo changes internally over the course of the text, using quotes from both the beginning and the end to justify these changes. Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis Write an essay comparing and contrasting Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis. Make sure you are specific about the ways they are similar as well as the differences between them. Do you think the two men become more similar or different over the course of the novel? How do their similarities and differences impact their ability to relate to each other? James Jarvis and his Worldview Write an essay that describes the transformation of James Jarvis' views and actions as a result of his son's death. What specific events lead to his radical changes? How do these changes in his character and feelings impact on his behavior in the novel? How do they impact his relationship with Kumalo? Social Issues The Tribal System. What events in the novel illustrate the breakup of the tribal system? How is the tribal system destroyed? What is done to replace it? Author's Vision What is Paton's vision of the world? Does he express the view that human beings are immutable or capable of transformation? Are we left with any kind of message, any vision for mankind? If so, what is it? Alan Paton was born a native of South Africa, in a native village named Pietermaritzburg in Natal of 1903. Mr. Paton starting career was teaching wealthy Caucasians of South Africa. At the age of 30, he began to suffer from enteric fever, Which in turn caused him to reflect upon his life. He later quit his job and started working as a principal at a reformatory school in Johannesburg. He worked at the institution for ten years, until one day he felt he needed a change. So, after he sold his life insurance, he financed a prison study. Which took him to Scandinavia, England, and then to the United States. It was then he wrote his famed book "Cry, the beloved country." The story of Cry the beloved country, it is ab out a man named Stephen Kumalo, his tribe is slowly dying; his youth is moving away to the city, and his family is falling apart. He then gets a letter that tells him that his sister is sick, So he leaves to find her as well as search for his missing brother and son; Absalom Kumalo. His search then leads him to the city of Johannesburg. Throughout his search Stephen finds the city in ruins, he finds his sister in terrible living conditions, he also finds his son has been imprisoned; leaving a pregnant girl behind, and his brother had become a politician. Stephen changes a lot during the story, from the naive priest who wants to restore his family and tribe; to a man who knows of human suffering. However, one thing about Stephen that never changes throughout the story is, he is respectful, devout, and diplomatic. Stephen through his travels learns so much; He learns that his sister does not suffer from a physical sickness, but a moral one. When Stephen and his sister first meet for the first time, he is cold and unforgiving; he tells her she has shamed the family name; it is not until she agrees to leave the city with him does he began to warm up to her. Stephen comes to realize he cannot restore his tribe system and he had failed to restore his family- but he does not give up hope. He turns to the younger generation; which

Wealth Tax Essays

Wealth Tax Essays Wealth Tax Paper Wealth Tax Paper Accepting the recommendations of N. Kaldor to introduce â€Å"integrated direct tax system† in India, Wealth Tax Act, 1957 was enacted. The Act was amended from time to time. The major objective of wealth tax has been attainment of equity objective of tax policy because wealth is considered as the major source of inequalities. The wealth taxation in India is applicable to all citizens of the country and is also called the wealth tax act, 1957. This is also considered to be direct taxes of the country. It is paid on the benefits of property ownership and the person who owns the property has to pay for the wealth tax for the time period for which he retains the ownership. It must be noted that the person has to pay for wealth tax even if it is not gaining any income. Reasons for levying Wealth Tax The wealth tax act is important direct tax legislation. It is a tax on the benefits derived from property ownership. Stated objectives behind introduction of bill for wealth tax were (a) That it would reduce the possibility of tax evasion (b) That it would take into account the taxpaying capacity of an individual (c) That it had a large measure of egalitarianism built into it both conceptually and operationally without disincentive effect. Levy of wealth tax was described as a measure to alter the tax structure in a way that would ensure more effective and at the same time a more equitable basis for taxation. Who to pay for the Wealth Tax in India The person who pays for the wealth tax is called an assesses and he may belong to the categories mentioned below: * A Hindu undivided family * Non corporate taxpayers * A representative of dead individual, or administrator and the executor * A Company * An agent of Non-resident * A body of individuals or as association of persons It should be noted that the tax will be considers on the total income earned from the collections of joint family in case of a Hindu Undivided Family. However, in case of non-corporate payers, they are supposed to pay the tax as per the existing tax rate as their accounts are being audited. Incidence of Wealth Tax Incidence of tax in the case of an individual depends upon his residential status and nationality. The scope of liability to wealth tax is as follows: (a) In the case of an individual who is a citizen of India and resident in India, a resident HUF and company resident in India; Wealth tax is chargeable on net wealth comprising of All assets in India and outside India; * All debts in India and outside India are deductible in computing the net wealth. (b) In the case of an individual who is a citizen of India but non-resident in India or not ordinarily resident in India, HUF, non-resident or not ordinarily resident in India and a company non-resident in India; * All assets in India except loan and debts interest whereon is exempt from income-tax under section 10 of the Income-Tax Act are chargeable to tax. All debts in Indi a are deductible in computing the net wealth. * All assets and debts outside India are out of the scope of Wealth Tax Act. (c) In the case of an individual who is not a citizen of India whether resident, non-resident or not ordinarily resident in India: Same as in (b) Wealth Tax Chargeable Assets Below mentioned are the assets on which the wealth tax has to be paid by the assesses: * Guesthouses, urban farmhouse, residential house and commercial property. * Automobiles for person purposes. Precious items such as utensils, bullions, jewellery and furniture. * Aircrafts, Yachts and boats which are used for non-commercial purposes. * For the cash in hand which exceeds 50,000 for Hindu undivided families and individuals. * Urban land which is under the authority of cantonment board or municipality and having a population over 10,000. The following are not regarded as assets while computing the wealth tax:- * A residential real estate property that has been allocated to a full time emplo yee by ither the company or the director or an officer with a gross yearly salary lesser than 5 lakh rupees * A commercial or residential real estate property that is part of a stock-in-trade process * Commercial real estate property being used for official or business purposes * A residential property that has been put on hire for a minimum of 300 days in the immediately earlier year * A commercial complex or establishment * A land where construction is illegal * A land where the building has been set up with approval from proper authorities * An unused land owned for industrial purposes. However, the land should remain unused for 2 years after acquisition * A land that has been owned by an assessee for 5 years as a stock-in-trade According to the section 4(l) (a) of the Wealth Tax Act, 1957 following are regarded as deemed assets: * Assets transferred between spouses * Assets transferred as per revocable transfer * Assets owned by minors. If a specially-abled child owns any asset it will not be grouped with his or her parents’ net income and will be assessed separately * Assets provided to son’s wife or to another person or group of individuals for the benefit of son’s wife. Asset that has been transferred to an individual or a group of people. This transfer must benefit the providers or their spouses in either short or long term Exemptions: (a) Wealth-tax need not be paid in respect of one house of an individual/ HUF or on a plot of land which does not exceed 500 square metres. (b) No tax need to be paid on any residential property that is let o ut for a minimum of 300 days in the relevant previous year, nor on any property which is held for business purposes. (c) Motor cars that are held by an assesses for running them on hire or held as stock in trade are also not liable to wealth-tax. d) The same applies to jewellery that is held as stock in trade for the purpose of business. (e) Assets such as investment in fixed deposits, shares or intangible property are not subject to wealth tax in India. (f) Property held under a trust or other legal obligation for any public purpose of a charitable or religious nature  in India subject to the  satisfaction of the stipulated conditions. Valuation Date Wealth Tax is levied on the net wealth of a person as on a particular date. This date is known as valuation date. The valuation date is the last day of the previous year relevant to the assessment year. Hence, valuation date is March 31, immediately preceding the assessment year. Calculation of Wealth Tax Taxable value of the assets  = Value of assets as on March 31 Debts owed against the assets principally, wealth tax is levied on non-productive assets of assesses. Thus the assets listed above used for commercial purposes  will be excluded from taxation. Wealth Tax Rates in India The maximum marginal rate of wealth tax, applicable to net wealth above Rs 15 lakh was quite high at 8 per cent till the year 1975-76. It was drastically reduced to 2. 5 per cent the following year 1976-77. In a reversal of policy of low rates, it was reduced to 3. 5 per cent in 1977-78 and further up to 5 per cent in 1979-80. In 1985-86, it was again lowered to 2 per cent and made applicable to net wealth over Rs 20 lakh. In 1992-93, it was further reduced to 1 per cent. Flat rate of 1 per cent on wealth exceeding Rs. 15 lakh. Tax rate is 1 per cent on amount by which ‘net wealth’ exceeds Rs 30 lakhs from AY 2010-11. (Till 31-3-2009, the limit was Rs 15 lakhs). No surcharge or education cess is payable. The Tax Reforms Committee,1991, suggested that wealth tax should be charged at the flat rate of 1 per cent with a basic exemption of Rs. 5 lakh instead of the then existing Rs 5 lakh. These recommendations were accepted and incorporated in the Financed Act, 1992. Thus following the recommendation of the Tax Reforms Committee, 1991, the scope of wealth tax both in terms of base and rate was drastically reduced, presently wealth tax has only decorative value for the statute b ook. Tax Reform Committee 1991, recommended tax on wealth should be abolished in respect of all items of wealth other than those which can be regarded as unproductive forms of wealth or other items whose possession and use could legitimately be discouraged in the social interest. The Committee also recommended wealth tax at the rate of one per cent of value of taxable items of wealth. Thus wealth tax shifted from wealth to unproductive assets. Since wealth tax is based on current market value of unproductive assests, valuation involves disputes. As a result, the administrative and compliance cost of the tax has been much higher. In view of the meagre revenue and problems of administration and compliance the Task Force on Direct Taxes, 2002 recommended the abolition of wealth tax. As Bhoothalingham Committee reported,† the wealth tax system should continue if for no reason then for ensuring in the long term that income tax is properly administered†. The share of wealth tax has always been less than one per cent and even if it is abolished the revenue impact will not be much. But it serves the objective of reducing inequalities and also provides a mechanism through which evasion of income tax can be minimized. Annexure -I YEAR| Wealth TaxRs in Crore| Percentage of GDP| Percentage of GTR| Percentage of Direct Tax| Growth| 1990-91| 231| 0. 04| 0. 40| 2. 0| -| 991-92| 307| 0. 04| 0. 45| 2. 0| 32. 9| 1992-93| 468| 0. 06| 0. 62| 2. 5| 52. 4| 1993-94| 154| 0. 01| 0. 20| 0. 75| -67. 1| 1994-95| 165| 0. 01| 0. 11| 0. 38| -31. 8| 1995-96| 74| 0. 006| 0. 06| 0. 22| -29. 5| 1996-97| 78| 0. 005| 0. 006| 0. 21| 5. 4| 1997-98| 113| 0. 007| 1. 13| 0. 23| 44. 8| 1998-99| 162| 0. 009| 0. 11| 0. 34| 43. 3| 1999-00| 133| 0. 006| 0. 07| 0. 22| -17. 9| 2000-01| 132| 0. 006| 0. 06| 0. 19| -0. 75| 2001-02| 135| 0. 005| 0. 07| 0. 19| 2. 2| 2002-03| 154| 0. 006| 0. 07| 0. 18| 14. 0| 2003-04| 136| 0. 004| 0. 05| 0. 12| -11. 6| 2004-05| 145| 0. 004| 0. 04| 0. 10| 6. 6| 2005-06| 250| 0. 06| 0. 06| 0. 15| 72. 4| 2006-07| 265| 0. 006| 0. 05| 0. 12| 6. 0| 2007-08| 315| 0. 006| 0. 05| 0. 10| 18. 8| 2008-09| 380| | | | | Source: Government of India; Economic Survey, various issues In 1990-91, the collection of wealth tax was Rs 231 crore and it contributes 2. 09 per cent to direct tax. The collection increased to Rs 468 crore in 1992-93 and contribution to direct tax reaches to 2. 5 per cent. Afterwards the revenue collection from the wealth tax decreased and also the contribution to direct tax decreased. In 1995-96, the revenue collection from wealth tax was only Rs 74 crore. After 1995-96, the wealth tax collection was increased but very slowly and contribution of wealth tax to GDP and direct tax was negligible, because of small revenue from wealth tax the Task Force on Direct Taxes, 2002 recommended the abolition of wealth tax. The growth of wealth tax was also very slow. In most of the years the growth rate was negative. The revenue collection from wealth tax in 2006-07 was Rs 265 crore and the share of wealth tax to direct tax was only 0. 12 per cent. In 2007-08 the revenue collection increased to Rs 315 crore and the share of wealth tax to direct tax decreased to 0. 10 per cent.

Comparing Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini's use of light Essay

Comparing Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini's use of light and shadow in their architecture - Essay Example In their architectural works, Borromini symbolized the imaginative and idiosyncratic sector of the baroque while Bernini represented the purposes and ideas of ancient Rome (Zelanski & Fisher 172). During their architectural works, both architectures used light as a building material so that they can cause visual and ornamental effect to describe the planned space. Therefore, both the architecture perceived light and shadow in their buildings for identity. Comparing Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini’s use of light and shadow in their architecture Both Bernini and Francesco used light and shadow in different sectors of their architectural works for varying functions. First, they considered the rays of light very important in their work since they used windows to act as lighting holes. They used windows to attract sunrays as seen on the church of the monastery. These architectures also used window lights in their works to show the cyclic values of time on varying seaso ns. They ensured that they built their windows in a systematic manner to have an opening, which allows rays to penetrate into specific areas within a house. Second, both Bernini and Francesco included light walls in their architectural works (White 27). ... An example is the church at Walsenburg Abbey. They enabled uniform lighting in their works by including several windows. Both architectures blended light and shadow in their work to make them appear livelier. This is because; both architectures believed that good lighting improves the surfacing texture, depth and the form of the work. They used different types of lighting and shadow in different areas; for example, they used homely lighting during the interior designs for domestic homes. Bernini and Francesco used light and shadow in their art works in order to bring about decorative effect (White 28). This is because light effects on any artwork clearly show the design of that work hence helping many people in defining such work. Both architectures considered light and shadow to rhyme; therefore, they used glass and other translucent materials in order to avoid brightness hence creating shadows in their artistic works. During their time, both architectures used light mainly in inter ior designs. They integrated fenestration together with artificial light hence creating illumination, which gave their works a sense of movement and emotion. They applied interior lighting to lessen focal prominence hence increasing a sense of openness as well as height of the objects. Both architectures used natural light to draw attention to specific parts of a given space and this was commonly applicable in churches and uniform tall windows. They also used light and fire to make their surfaces more reflective and the candle encouraged spectacular illumination (Ficher-Rathus 400). ContrastingGian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini’s use of light and shadow in their architecture Bernini and

Homeless English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Homeless English - Essay Example However, many individual, structural, family and social factors are also contributing to this problem. For example, divorce rate is increasing day by day in America and subsequently single parenthood is also rising. Single parenthood prevent families from achieving enough income for managing family expense and the ultimate outcome could be poverty and homelessness. Many people are of the view that governmental intervention and assistances are necessary to assist people do build have their own homes. â€Å"Around $2.5 billion of dollars has already been sanctioned by the Obama administration for solving homelessness problems in America† (Obama Administration awards $1.4 billion in homeless grants). However, many others are of the view that such assistance is not necessary to this problem. In their opinion, such huge assistance will make the people lazy or idle and they will approach the government for everything without doing their duties properly. This paper analyses the argum ents in favor and against governmental assistance to homelessness problems. contribute to the homelessness problem. Children seem to be most important community upon which homelessness problem affect seriously. Government, social organizations and individuals should combine well and act effectively to eradicate homelessness related problem from the world. Homeless children are sick at twice the rate of other children. They suffer twice as many ear infections, have four times the rate of asthma, and have five times more diarrhea and stomach problems. Homeless children go hungry twice as often as nonhomeless children. More than one-fifth of homeless preschoolers have emotional problems serious enough to require professional care, but less than one-third receive any treatment. Homeless children are twice as likely to repeat a grade compared to nonhomeless children. Homeless children have twice the rate of learning disabilities and three times the rate of emotional and behavioral proble ms of nonhomeless children. Half of school-age homeless children experience anxiety, depression, or withdrawal compared to 18 percent of nonhomeless children (Bassuk &Friedman, 2005, p.2). The above statistics clearly show that homelessness may cause extreme damages to the children and it should be reduced or avoided completely for the better development of the children. Children are the future asset of a nation and no country can keep a blind eye towards the healthy development of the children. Homelessness in fact affect children more than any other community. Not only for physical growth, but also for the emotional or mental growth. Children need their own homes. Homelessness will create an unsecure feeling in the minds of the children which is not good for their healthy development. Community based shelter homes are provided to many of the homeless people in America. Such strategies may cause more damage than good to the safe development of children. So, governmental assistance is necessary to avoid homelessness in America. The recent recession, has affected the poor people more than the rich people. Poor people usually stay in rented homes since they are don’t have enough resources to purchase a property and build their own homes. Financial institutions already started the tightening of screws while allocating mortgages or home loans as a result of the lessons they learned from the recent recession. So, poor people are facing extreme difficulties in finding enough financial assistance for making their

Summary of two articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary of two articles - Essay Example tin also acknowledges the Philippines’ move to draft and enact environmental laws but it is of concern whether the implementation would be successful. The United States affirmed its commitment to environmental conservation with the planned installation of windmills that is more preferable than solar power at the Adirondack Park. In her article â€Å"Will Warmer Soil Be as Fertile†, Lance Frazer (2009) explains the role played by soil in organic matter decomposition. She also explains how heating of the atmosphere hastens plant photosynthesis. Frazer (2009) further discusses studies by Myrna Simpson in a report â€Å"Nature Geoscience† November 2nd 2008 that outlines the anticipated effects of global warming in causing unpredictable patterns of carbon circulation in the environment. A study by the team showed increased microorganisms decomposition activity in warmer conditions that result in high release of CO2 into the atmosphere. Frazer (2009) highlights concerns by Howard Epstein an associate environmentalist on drawing conclusions based on the study. Epstein also questioned sustainability of the findings. Simpson (2008) concludes by pointing out the increased CO2 levels with increased degradation. Frazer recommends more study on soil with a keen interests on the effects of the molecular levels on the

The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited

The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited Great Eastern started to operate in 26 August 1908 as a branch office of The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited. It has the distinction of being the oldest life insurance company in Malaysia and Singapore and it is owned subsidiary of Great Eastern Holdings Limited (GEH) and its parent company is Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC). It was transferred to a locally incorporated public company, Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad. The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Great Eastern is Mr. Koh Yaw Hui. Great Eastern was certified as the â€Å"Oldest and Largest Life Insurer† in Malaysia by the Malaysia Book of Records in 1998. It is the largest and most established insurance company in the country with 24 branch offices nationwide and a strong service network of more than 17,000 agents. These locations include Alor Setar, Batu Pahat, Bintulu, Ipoh, Klang, Melaka, Penang and so on. The main office located at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Besides that they also expand their business to China, Indonesia and Brunei. According to statistic, Great Eastern is the largest group and market leader in Malaysia and Singapore with the total assets of $45 billion and 3million policyholder. Among the 16 insurance companies in Malaysia, Great Eastern is the largest in term of assets and biggest in term of market share compare to other competitor. The slogan of Great Eastern is â€Å"Life is great!† and the mission of Great Eastern is to make life great by providing financial security, and promoting good health and meaningful relationships and their vision is to be the leading financial service provider in Asia. As a company dedicated to the people business, it always provides solution on financial planning, protection and savings to meet their customers’ needs. Generations of individuals, families and businesses have been and will continue to be assured of their financial security with the companys full range of products such as life insurance plan, investment-linked plans, mortgage protection, business protection, employee benefits, medical insurance and group health benefit schemes. Great Eastern also offers full range of products to the potential customers whether individuals, families or organizations. Great Eastern offers flexible and affordable group health benefits and protection schemes to both the corporate and public sectors employees. Customers can purchase the products and services provided by the company according to their needs through the agents. Now a day, Great Eastern is on the track to becoming the leading financial service provider in Asia. Further, Great Eastern is ready to be the only choice of financial service provider in the region and beyond in accordance of integrity, initiative and involvement. Thus, Great Eastern has introduced a variety of products to meet consumer needs. Those products may classify into several categories as life insurance, health protection, investment-link, retirement planning and saving plan. Great Eastern continues to forge ahead through the greater use of proven leading-edge technologies to improve their business processes to create a unique customer service experience, and deliver greater value to their clients. On their website, they offer e-Connect facilities to allow policyholders to obtain their policy information on-line. It will reduce the cost for searching the information. In order to smoothen the operation and better manage their enormous customer base, Great eastern has adopts many Information technology (IT) and information system (IS) from the market-leading insurer and help to transform the company operation. Different system used by different department such as top management, middle management and operational management. Every department will used different information system according to the function and operations. The information systems adopted by Great Eastern are outsourcings also in-house development. It means that they purchase the relevant software and hardware from the market most of the time to save their cost and also develop the in-house software to perform the specific job and more easily to meet the business requirement. With the help of current IT and IS, the company are able to perform their business effectively and consistency. Besides that it will also resulted in higher level of performance, reliability and scalability of company and it delivers greater value to their clients. Senior Management Team 1. Loke Kah Meng Executive V. President Head Customer Management 2. Margaret Fong Senior V. President Head Operations 3. Lee Pooi Hor Senior V. President Head Information Technology 4. Michelle Tan Yee Ming Head, Group Audit 5. Koh Yaw Hui Chief Executive Officer 6. Cheong Soo Ching Senior V. President Head Risk Management 7. Nancy Lim Senior V. President Head Human Capital 8. Chan Choong Tho Chief Investment Officer 9. Yong Chee Keong Senior V. President Head Customer Acquisition 10. Bruce Lee Executive V. President Head Finance Corporate Affairs 11. Sophia Ch’ng Appointed Actuary 12. Liza Hanim Vice President Company Secretary b) Explore and analyze the current application of IT/IS Across different levels of management Across different functional units Great Eastern is a company that we going to do research. Great Eastern is the largest insurance company in Malaysia and the business had run over 100 years with the supporting from customers. There are over 3 million policyholders for the company. The company has used sophisticate system to run the business. Great Eastern using different information technology and information system to carry their business day-to-day and they used the information system to manage the company more effectively and efficiency. Basically the company used Oracle ERP system which is Oracle E-Business Suite to manage whole enterprise. The company consist of different departments such as Finance and Accounting department, Human Resource department, Sales and Marketing department and Customer Relationship Management department. Each department used different information systems for their operations but all the systems are linked to the Oracle E- Business Suite system. Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Human Resources Projects CRM SCM There are many systems used by the company and the main information system used by the finance department is Oracle Financials (OFIN). The main user of this information system is all the personnel in Finance department. Oracle Financials (OFIN) is one of a group under the Oracle E-Business Suite and it consists of five modules or also known as Oracle Applications. The five applications of the Oracle Financials are Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Assets and Oracle Cash Management. Besides using Oracle Financials (OFIN), the company also use other communication system and office system to run their daily business. The communication systems used by the company are E-mail, MSN, and Skype. The communication software allowed the personnel and manager interact with each other and the office they are using is Microsoft Office 2007 such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. The application of system and software will change when it com e across different level of management. By using Oracle E-Business Suite, it helps Great Eastern to reduce the cost of automating centralizing global transaction processes and produced streamline reporting across its branch offices in Malaysia. The management said that the information maintenance cost of the company have been reduced by 35% after implemented the system. Oracle provides new solutions that help financial institutions include Great Eastern to improve customer intimacy, build competitive advantage among competitor, reduce costs by automating and centralizing the transactional processes and mitigate enterprise risk and it continues to build its financial services leadership. Great Eastern use Oracle E-Business Suite Financials to support their business is because it can meets global financial reporting such as International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and tax requirements by using only one accounting, banking, tax and payments model. Besides that, it delivers pre-integrated financial and industry-specif ic processes and it makes Great Eastern easy to operate shared services across their businesses and regions. As it provides very consistent operation and financial information to the user, it helps the company make the correct decision on investment and business decisions with integrated performance management and business intelligence. The management of Great Eastern had divided into three categories which are executive management, middle management and operational management. The executive management includes the highest management positions in the company such as CEO and CIO, who is primarily responsible for strategic decision making also known as unstructured decisions that centre on the companys overall goals. Every decision is important and non-routine. They will determine the long term objectives, resources and policies of the organization such like where to invest, approve the capital budget and oversee the middle management. While the middle management of Great Eastern such as Finance Department manager is responsible for implementing the strategic decision such as develop a budgeting plan and investment proposal. They make semi-structured decisions which are short-range decision and will oversee operational management. The last layer in the enterprise are operational management includes all the personnel who involved in daily transaction. They need to determine how to carry out the specific tasks set by executive and middle management decision makers. They need to monitor the transaction carefully and ought to follow the procedure. In this case, the staffs of the Great Eastern need to record the transactions make by policyholders and make sure the data is correct. Oracle Applications is installed and link to the servers of a Great eastern. All the personnel from different levels of management in the company include CEO, department manager and normal employees will be given a user name and the password to link to the server. Basically, they connect to the servers in their LAN by using their browsers. The user will receive a menu to choose their responsibility before they proceed to receive another menu of functions to perform. The user may key in the data or what is happening at the company ground needs in a form in applications. In this situation the applications will not allowed to proceed further if there is any errors because the errors will be arrested at every step. The outputs will be a dozens of reports in a different format for Business Intelligence so that the users can make informed decisions based on timely information and for decision makers; they will understand better what is actually happening. The fives modules of Oracle Financials are Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Assets, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables and Oracle Cash Management. Oracle Financials 5 modules: Financials Assets (FA) General Ledger (GL) Receivables (AR) Payables (AP) Cash Management (CM) Oracle General Ledger Enterprise G/L Accounting Oracle General Ledger is the most scalable general ledger and the fastest in the market. It can post 40 million journal lines per hour and thus help the company cut down the time in preparing the financial report. It is the most important module which is used to manage the accounting and financial information of Great Eastern. The Oracle General Ledger will tell the company that how much profit they have generate, how much expenses they have incurred, how much assets and liabilities of the company. All the information flows from different modules into Oracle General Ledger module which manages the accounting and helps the management to make decision. Oracle General Ledger provides highly automated financial processing and real time visibility to financial results. Besides, Oracle General Ledger also can support different types of journal processing options. The system allows tailoring the chart up to 30 segments and 25 characters per segment. The user just can enter the segments they would like to enquiry then the system will show the results. Another feature of this system is the chart of account will be secured and prevent other people to access and retrieve the private data. Besides, Oracle General Ledger also can support different types of journal processing options. The user can combine journals and schedule the journals to be generated automatically and it provides spreadsheet integration for journals, reporting, budgets and currency rates. Oracle Asset Enterprise FA Assets The second module of Oracle Financials (OFIN) is Oracle Assets which is used to manage the assets of Great Eastern. The assets could be anything like laptop and computer in the company. With the help of Oracle Assets, the asset management would be automated and accounting tasks would be simplified. Standard accounting, operational, and registry reports are available to ease reconciliation and analysis. Oracle Assets allowed the user to define the depreciation rules according to the regulatory and business needs. The company can choose the method to according to the needs. Great Eastern is a global enterprise; the company is focus on the business in South East Asia. Different country used different depreciation rules to calculate the depreciation charges. As the company grows internationally, Great Eastern need an integrated, flexible system grows exponentially. In this situation, Oracle Assets supports complex reporting requirements includes worldwide financial and tax standards. Great Eastern can obey any regulatory requirements from other country by using flexible user-defined rules to calculate depreciation charge. Oracle Payables Enterprise Vendor AP The third module is Oracle Payables which is used to manage the vendors or the suppliers of the company. The transaction record or data need to enter by the operational level includes what has the company purchased from which vendor? When to pay the suppliers? Does the company pay on time? What methods they used for payment such as by credit or cash? All the transactions between the company and supplier will be record in the Oracle Payables. In the Payment Process Request window, it will show the details about the suppliers with the Great Eastern. It shows the amount, the name of vendor, date of purchased and the schedule of payments. The schedule of payments include the payment currency, amount remaining, discounts given, interest due and also total amount payable. With the help of Oracle Payables, it will optimize the payment strategies of the enterprise. The middle management is given the tools to control the cash flow, oversee the operational management to minimize the errors and the problems of overpayments. Besides that, the system also helps to eliminate the inefficiencies with the standard reports that allow the manager to eliminate the identical or double payments. Another way is Oracle Payables provides real-time, accurate cash position and speculate information so the manager can plans the payment and expenses properly. So in overall, Oracle Payables can improves the margins, infuse corporate and fiscal discipline, and optimizes business relationships between Great Eastern and their suppliers. Oracle Receivables AR Enterprise Customers The fourth module of Oracle Financials is Oracle Receivables. Basically, the information for Oracle Receivables not much different compared to Oracle payables. The difference is this system is used to manage the customers or receivables so it will tell the company that the name of the customers, items bought from the customers such as what insurance policy purchased by the customers. Besides that it would state the payment methods used by the customers and the date of payment made by customers. By using this system, it will show the credit rating of the customers due to the pass payment made by them. All the transactions between Great Eastern and their customers will be recorded in this system. In the Oracle Receivables streamlines invoice entry, it shows the name of the customers, address, contact number, policy number, types of payment, amount of premium, due date, interest due if any and etc. Besides that, it allows the company to increase their cash flow and minimize the bad debt through Oracle Receivables system and better control for the manager. Oracle Receivables allows company to go globalization. With this system, Great Eastern has the flexibility to respond to the global market needs, support any regulatory requirements and so present documents in customer’s language and also enhanced customer relationship. With the flexibility, it helps the enterprise to calculate the currency gain or loss automatically so the finance staffs they no need do the complex calculation by themselves and also able to report in multiple currencies. Oracle Cash Management CM Enterprise Bank The last module of Oracle Financials is Oracle Cash Management. It helps the company to reconcile the bank statement and it will tells that whether bank has made error not, how many bank accounts the company have and also what is the status of the bank account. It allows Great Eastern to manage the firms liquidity and control of cash. Oracle Cash Management gives the company directs access to expected cash flows from their operational systems. By using the company can analyze enterprise wide cash requirements, cash management and currency exposures more quickly, to ensure liquidity and optimal use of cash resources. As it provides flexibility in cash forecasting, in different currencies, different organization and for multiple time periods, the middle and senior management can use the system to forecast the cash flow in future based on forecasted transactions for example outstanding orders and invoices that may be create a cash flow in future. Besides that, real time cash positioning will minimize the idle cash. Real time cash positioning is important to prevent overdrafts of bank balance and helps the company manage their liquidity effectively. c) Explain how the use of such IT/IS application can help to change or manage the organization decision making and business process. Information Flow Payables (AP) Assets (FA) General Ledger (GL) Cash Management (CM) Receivables (AR) Great Eastern Finance department had used Oracle E-Business Suite to automate their general ledger and accounts payable and receivable processing, cash management and as well as their fixed assets. Oracle E-business Suite able to help the company automate budgeting, purchasing and any forecasting process include future cash flow and thus allow for online payment to the supplier or vendor. Without the information system, they have to do all financial budgeting and forecasting job manually by using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and it will cause time consuming and the information produced may not be accurate and limited. Each module in the Oracle Financials will talk to each other means that information from one module will flow to each other although they are stand alone software. In this case, the management is easier to retrieve different information from different area. By using standardized software, it simplifies interdepartmental sharing of data as well as information and they are able to get all the information they want. Besides that, the information system will also help to manage the enterprise risk and reduce compliance costs. All the modules will link together and it will provide sufficient reliable information for the management of Finance department to make any short term or long term decisions. For example, the Oracle Financials modules are linked to each other, the Finance manager can refer to different modules at the same time to forecast future cash flow and to control the daily transaction more effective. The manager may use the software to make a right investment decision in the business. Great Eastern used Oracle E-Business Suite to improve their budgeting and planning. The Finance manager of Great Eastern enters department budget and submits for the senior management to approve. Using the Oracle Cash Management and Oracle Assets, the user can immediately prepare the financial budget and forecast report after approved. Oracle Assets For Oracle Assets, operational management which involves Finance staffs have to enter the original cost of the assets, the useful life of the assets, and the most important step is to choose the depreciation method which the company complied with in order to calculate the accurate depreciation amount for each year. By using the Oracle Assets, it gives the company and department more accurate visibility of capital investments and therefore the middle management like Finance manager will has better control over their capital investment. Once the Finance manager inquiries for the ad-hoc report, he may use the powerful Asset Inquiry to access the information he looking for, including transaction history of the clients, financial details, depreciation profile, capital project details and financial details. The senior management of Great Eastern able to optimize their accounting and tax strategies by projecting depreciation expenses with what-if depreciation analysis. With the assist of Oracle Assets, it drives better decision making and able to optimized business processes at lowest cost. Oracle Cash Management For oracle Cash Management, the operational management will enter all the past transaction data into Oracle Cash Management for example the cash inflow and cash outflow then the system will calculate the net cash flow. The middle management they only enter the duration they going to forecast for example 3 months from now, they also need to choose the forecast currency then the system will do the calculation and forecast the future cash flow of the company. The Finance manager can base on the forecasted result and decide how to allocate the cash and how much to invest in which area to maximize the revenue of company. The user can do their budgeting and forecasting without rely on the hard copy report, because all the data will easily and quickly turns up on time which will increase the accuracy of forecast. It will also make sure the accurate information of the company’s assets between Finance department and line of business will help the manager make better decision on budgeti ng. Without the assist of the system, it may take up to 2 weeks to make the report available to the manager. After preparing the budget and forecast report, it will helps the Finance manager to have an clearer picture on how to allocate the funds in different area of investments such as shares market, bond, unit trust or deposits. In addition, Oracle Cash Management can build a cash forecast based on forecasted transactions like outstanding order and invoices. With this, the user in Finance department can analysis the past transactions from the customers and suppliers such as receipt and past payments into future. Once the budget and forecast report was approved, the budget data will be upload into Oracle General Ledger for combination. After that the budget is ready to use by the Finance department. Besides that, the month-end report also can be created within a day allowed the faster response to inquiry by the Finance manager. Oracle General Ledger Finance department staffs are using Oracle General Ledger and Oracle Cash Management to done their day-to-day business transaction include oversee the invoicing, budgeting and also company cash flow. The Oracle applications are integrated with each other, it makes the financial information more stable and reliable and stored in a single database. It gives the higher visibility to the manager into financial matters. Basically the manager will have confident in making any financial decisions because the data provided is accurate and is the latest one considered as up-to-date data. Operational management in Great Eastern Finance department used the Oracle General Ledger to enter the daily accounting transaction. The finance staffs just need to enter the correct data such as the premium amount; expenses and amount claim from policyholders then the system will help them to perform the task. Since the system performs the task in automated way, it will minimize the error make by people and increase the efficiency. For middle management, they will oversee the operational level. Since Oracle General Ledger provides flexible chart of accounts and reporting structures, the finance department manager can based on the report and make the decision. Oracle General Ledger allows the middle management to have a complete control and flexibility to design their own chart of accounts. They need to know the amount of insurance premium delay or accrue by the policyholders and send the notifications to reminder them to pay off. Furthermore, they can control the budget and expenses made by the department based on the accounting record. Oracle General Ledger also provides flexibility to the management level to response to their inquiry. The manager only enters the segment they want then the system will show the result to manager. From the result, the manager will know the balance of the account, the amount paid to the suppliers and received from customers. The senior management use Oracle General Ledger to check on the profitability revenue growth of the Great Eastern. The CEO of the company can use the system to check the balance each month because the system provides the feature of automated month-end close processing. It allows the senior management to optimize the use of resources they have such as, cash, assets and budget to generate more income for company in future. From the accounting record, Finance department will know the profitability revenue growth in the past; it will help the company to make better decision in the future and fully utilize the resources that the company has to generate higher revenue by referring to the accounting record produced by Oracle General Ledger. Oracle General Ledger’s Financial Statement Generator (FSG) improves the precisely and timeliness of financial reporting. FSG supports many output options includes PDF, HTML, text and spreadsheet outputs. In addition, the staffs are allowed to create quality reports by defining the report layouts using word processing application and leveraging formatting features like change the font size, colour and adding logo. Oracle Receivables Oracle Receivables is a module which enables the Finance department to manage all the transaction made by the customers. The staffs have to enter the information of the customers like name, policy number, date, types of purchases and amount of purchases in order to reduce the error. Oracle Receivables will do calculation with data, determine the premium amount need to pay by the policyholders and calculate the interest due if the policyholders failed to pay the premium on time. The task will be automated so it will help to reduce the personal error and provide more accurate and timely data. Based on this system, the operational management will send the notification letter to the customers and tell the customers when they need to pay the premium. Basically the information from this system will flow to Microsoft Office- Microsoft Word in preparing the notification for customers. In order to optimize customer relationships with the company and provide strategic information, Oracle Receivables allows the finance staffs to streamline invoicing and receipt. The data enter will be saved in the database and easy for user to retrieve data next time. In addition, it will let the management know the credit rating of the customers and so they will always focus on the loyal customers once they introduce new product. With the assist of Oracle Receivables, the middle management know who is unlikely to make payment on time and they will find out the solutions try to enhanced the relationship between the customers with enterprise and reducing the time and effort required to process customer payments thus resolve disputes. By using Oracle Receivables, the senior management of the company can provides variety of convenient payments to the customers to make payment like using credit card, debit card, check or cash. This will encourage timely payment and reduce their day sales outstanding (DSO). Oracle Payables Oracle Payables are deal with the transaction for suppliers. By using this system, it will tell the company when they should pay to the suppliers. Oracle Payables will show the amount, date and the name of person or organization that the company should pay on time in order to maintain a good credit rating and trustworthily form the creditor. With the help of Oracle Payables, it will optimize the payment strategies of the enterprise. The middle management is given the tools to control the cash flow, oversee the operational management to minimize the errors and the problems of overpayments. The management level can based on this system decide what types of payment they should pay first and what the payment method is. This system supports shared services functionality which promotes best practice for Great Eastern. Besides that, Oracle Payables also provide full scale support for Great Eastern including foreign currency transactions and also future date payment. So in overall, Oracle Payables can improves the margins, infuse corporate and fiscal discipline, and optimizes business relationships between Great Eastern and their suppliers. Office and communication system For Office Automation System (OAS), Great Eastern Finance department using Microsoft Office 2007 in perform their daily business. It is designed to increase the productivity of data workers in the office by supporting the coordinating and communicating activities of the typical office. The most common office tools used by the finance staffs are Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The staffs are using Microsoft Word to prepare the report and letter or document required by the manager. Basically, the financial report of Oracle Financials will link to Microsoft Word and PDF directly so the staffs no need to prepare again the report by their own. The Finance staffs use Microsoft Excel to do some simple calculation such as the total premium amount paid by the customers, the monthly collection, interest payment and etc. Besides that, they also used Microsoft PowerPoint when there is a meeting of the department. The presenter will show the slides by using Microsoft PowerPoint to make it mor e interesting. Besides that, the company also uses communication software in order to communicate with each level of the department. The most common communication way is to use E-mail. Each staffs in the company from lowest to top management are given their own E-mail address for internal use and external use. For the internal use, the colleague can send the document, notice or information through E-mail to a

The Extended Allegory in The Power and The Glory Essay -- Power and Th

The Extended Allegory in The Power and The Glory      Ã‚  Ã‚   Graham Greene pieced together The Power and the Glory from his own personal memoirs in 1940 after a three-year trip to Mexico.   Drawing from his own observations of a small town torn between the anti-religious laws of the secular government and the people's religious beliefs, Greene created the story of a Catholic priest being pursued by the police to illustrate the conflicting relationship between the church and state (Greene 2-4).   Greene used his experiences in Mexico to create an extended allegory that illustrates the conflict between the two world views and, in turn, reveals his own values and philosophy.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Drawing from his experience in Mexico, Greene developed a "whiskey priest," a character introduced to Greene by a friend in Mexico in a story of a drunken priest that christened a child by the wrong name, to embody the religious world view.   The priest, who remains nameless throughout the novel to emphasize his allegorical role, is less an individual than a symbol of the "Church [and] of the cumulative wisdom of the past, in short, of Western Humanism" (DeVitis 89).   The priest, however, is seen as a traitor to the state and to his religion.   The last Catholic priest in a secular Mexican state, the priest's photograph is hung next to that of a notorious American gangster on the wall of the police office.   The priest's tendency towards gin, cowardliness, and his moral weakness make him a traitor to his faith and religious order.  Ã‚   On the allegorical level of the novel, the priest's flight from the police is seen as a "flight from God" and away from becom ing a saint (DeVitis 90).   Refusing to accept his destiny of being captured by the police and becom... ...ce into paradise" (Hynes 67).   Only after the priest's execution is the lieutenant forced to realize his own emptiness and does Greene reveal his religious compassion.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Although often criticized for being "chiefly Roman Catholic," The Power and the Glory masterfully illustrates the intense conflict between the secular and religious world views (Hynes 70).   By developing complex allegorical characters, Graham Greene achieves an almost myth-like quality.       Works Cited: Allot, Kenneth and Miriam Farris, The Art of Graham Greene. New York:   Russell & Russell, 1951. DeVitis, A. A., Graham Greene.   New York: Twayne Publishers, 1964. Greene, Graham, The Power and the Glory.   New York: The Viking Press, 1940. Hynes, Samuel ed.,   Graham Greene: A Collection of Critical Essays.  Ã‚   Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973.

Bill Gates: the Man Behind the Success of Microsoft

William Henry â€Å"Bill† Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third, in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6. percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Gates has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000. Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman

The Relationship Between Student and Teacher Essays

The Relationship Between Student and Teacher Essays The Relationship Between Student and Teacher Essay The Relationship Between Student and Teacher Essay The Relationship between Students and Teachers If students have a better relationship with their teachers, then they will have a better time in class. There are many reasons why I choose to do this observation. One reason is because many students feel as if their teacher does not understand them. However, in the observation that I am about to describe, students who connect better with their teacher have a better time in class. In my class I observed how my classmates interact with their teacher and how it ffect them in class. Most students who had a very chilled teacher had a very loud class. The teacher would teach their lesson and the students would pay attention. After, the teaching was over the students would interact with each other and the teacher. I realized that most teachers who were honest and didnt really act like a teacher students felt more comfortable. For example, the girl with the curly hair asked the pale pink cheeked teacher what he does when he gets home. His responds was playing Grand Theft Auto. Knowing this, many of the guy students come in every day and asked about what level he has accomplished. Many of the girls would Joke with him and ask about his love life. He responds as if he doesnt mind talking about his personal life. Students that I observed and interviewed said that he was very honest and thats what they expect from their teachers. The teacher with the blue eyes and very soothing voice helped my light and skinny friend with her relationship. As she sat at his desk sobbing her story to him, he soothed her with his voice and ave her the wisdom to confront the problem and be the strong one in her relationship. With other students seeing this, gave them the ability to trust their teacher with not only school work but also with personal life situations. Many students come his class and talk about everything, from what they ate for dinner to who twerk the best in videos. Whenever you go in his class students are learning but also laughing and having real life conversations. On the other hand students who dont have a relationship with their teacher eemed to hate their class. Many students that I observed were very bored. They come to class without work done. They stay on their phones and tend to not pay attention to the lesson. Some even go to sleep and wake up in time for the pack up and leave. The tall linky teacher told the big girl to put her phone up but she didnt. The big girl disrespected the tall linky teacher which caused confusion in the class. Students who saw this said that they saw how angry the teacher can get. An nterracial group of students I observed tend to act up causing the very mean teacher to write them up. These students feel as if she treated them better with respect and understand that they are people too, and then she would have a good class. In conclusion, students who have a better relationship with their teacher they tend to have a better time in class. Students who dont have a good relationship with their teacher tend to have a bad time in class. This is my observational essay. The Relationship Between Student and Teacher By Covergurll 31

Renault FT Tank in World War I

Renault FT Tank in World War I The Renault FT, often referred to as the FT-17, was a ground-breaking tank design which entered service in 1918. A French light tank, the FT was the first tank to incorporate many design aspects which are now considered standard such as a fully-rotating turret and rear engine compartment. Small by World War I standards, the FT was intended to swarm through the enemys lines and overwhelm defenders. Used by French and American forces on the Western Front, the design was produced in large numbers and retained by many nations until the early days of World War II. Development The origins of the Renault FT may be traced to an early meeting between Louis Renault and Colonel Jean-Baptiste Eugà ¨ne Estienne in 1915. Overseeing the fledgling French tank corps which had been created during the early years of World War I, Estienne hoped to have Renault design and build an armored vehicle based on the Holt tractor. Operating with the backing of General Joseph Joffre, he was seeking firms to moved the project forward. Though intrigued, Renault declined citing a lack of experience with tracked vehicles and commenting that his factories were already operating at capacity. Not to be demurred, Estienne took his project to Schneider-Creusot which created the French Armys first tank, the Schneider CA1. Though he had declined the initial tank project, Renault commenced developing a design for a light tank that would be relatively simple to produce. Assessing the landscape of the time, he concluded that existing engines lacked the necessary power-to-weight ratio to allow armored vehicles to successfully clear trenches, shell holes, and other obstacles. As a result, Renault sought to limit his design to 7 tons. As he continued to refine his thoughts on a light tank design, he had another meeting with Estienne in July 1916. Increasingly interested in smaller, lighter tanks which he believed could overwhelm defenders in ways that larger, heavier tanks could not, Estienne encouraged Renaults work. While this support would proved critical, Renault struggled to gain acceptance of his design from Minister of Munitions Albert Thomas and the French high command. After extensive work, Renault received permission to build a single prototype. Design Working with his talented industrial designer Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, Renault sought to bring his theories into reality. The resulting design  set the pattern for all future tanks. Though fully-revolving turrets had been used on a variety of French armored cars, the FT was the first tank to incorporate this feature. This allowed the smaller tank to fully utilize a single weapon rather than needing multiple guns mounted in sponsons with limited fields of fire. The FT also set the precedent for placing the driver in the front and the engine in the rear. The incorporation of these features made the FT a radical departure from previous French designs, such as the Schneider CA1 and the St. Chamond, which were little more than armored boxes. Operated by a crew of two, the FT mounted a rounded tail piece to aid in crossing trenches and included automatically tensioned tacks to help prevent derailments. Crew positions in a Renault FT-17 tank. National Archives and Records Administration To ensure that engine power would be maintained, the power plant was designed to operate effectively when slanted to allow the tank to traverse steep slopes. For crew comfort, ventilation was provided by the engines radiator fan. Though in close proximity, no provision was made for crew communication during operations. As a result, gunners devised a system of kicking the driver in the shoulders, back, and head to transmit directions. Armament for the FT typically consisted of either a Puteaux SA 18 37 mm gun or a 7.92 mm Hotchkiss machine gun.   Renault FT - Specifications Dimensions Length: 16.4 ft.Width: 4.8 ft.Height: 7 ft.Weight: 7.2 tons Armor Armament Armor: 0.86 in.Armament: 37 mm Puteaux gun or a 7.92 mm Hotchkiss machine gunAmmunition: 238 x 37mm projectiles or 4,200 x 7.62mm ammunition Engine Engine: 39 hp gasoline engineSpeed: 4.35 mphRange: 40 milesSuspension: Vertical SpringsCrew: 2 Production Despite its advanced design, Renault continued to have difficulty getting approval for the FT. Ironically, its chief competition came from the heavy Char 2C which was also designed by Ernst-Metzmaier. With the relentless support Estienne, Renault was able to move the FT into production. Though he had Estiennes support, Renault competed for resources with the Char 2C for the remainder of the war. Development continued through the first half of 1917, as Renault and Ernst-Metzmaier sought to refine the design. By the end of the year, only 84 FTs had been produced, however 2,613 were built in 1918, before the end of hostilities. All told, 3,694 were constructed by French factories with 3,177 going to the French Army, 514 to the US Army, and 3 to the Italians. The tank was also built under license in the US under the name Six Ton Tank M1917. While only 64 were finished before the armistice, 950 were eventually constructed. When the tank first entered production, it had a round cast turret, however this varied depending on the manufacturer. Other variants included an octagonal turret or one made from bent steel plate. French Renault FTs advance through Vaux, 1918. Library of Congress Combat Service The FT first entered combat on May 31, 1918, at Foret de Retz, south-west of Soissons, and aided the 10th Army in slowing the German drive on Paris. In short order, the FTs small size increased its value as it was capable of traversing terrain, such as forests, that other heavy tanks were incapable of negotiating. As the tide turned in the Allies favor, Estienne finally received large numbers of the tank, which allowed for effective counterattacks against German positions. The FT saw use at the Second Battle of the Marne as well as during the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives. Widely used by French and American forces, the FT ultimately participated in 4,356 engagements with 746 being lost to enemy action. Postwar Following the war, the FT formed the armored backbone for many nations, including the United States. The tank saw subsequent action in the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Chinese Civil War, and Spanish Civil War. In addition it remained in the reserve forces for several countries. During the early days of World War II, the French still had 534 operating in various capacities. In 1940, following the German drive to the Channel which isolated many of Frances best armored units, the entire French reserve force was committed, including 575 FTs. With the fall of France, the Wehrmacht captured 1,704 FTs. These were redeployed across Europe for airbase defense and occupation duty. In Britain and the United States, the FT was retained for use as a training vehicle. Additional FTs were retained by Vichy French forces in North Africa. These were encountered by American and British forces during the Operation Torch landings in late 1942 and were easily defeated by the Allies modern M3 Stuart and M4 Sherman tanks.

Favorite Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Favorite Research - Essay Example Contact phone numbers and addresses of the association are also given. 2. http://www.prea.org/ this site is hosted by Pension Real Estate Association, the site for institutional investors in real estate ie. Pension funds, endowments, foundations and other funds. The useful information on this site is: b. Research Report under the link "/research/ plansponsorsurvey_2006.pdf" Gives comparative data of 2005 and 2006 on real estate investment actual and targeted. This page also gives the comparative investment strategy of its members. This is very comprehensive information for anyone studying real estate investments. d. The membership is open to institutes (organizations that provide investment management, advisory, consulting, property management, legal, accounting, appraisal or other services to corporate and public pension funds, endowments, foundations, Taft Hartley plans and other institutional investors, not for profit organizations and academic institutions). Rates for membership vary depending upon the status. d. It provides rate information (US Treasuries, repurchase agreements, interest rate swaps, agency securities, mortgage-backed securities, spot FX) and country profiles (country's credit rating, short-term investment alternatives and payment/clearing systems) again for members only.

A policy of discretion gives central bank the ability to react to news Essay

A policy of discretion gives central bank the ability to react to news about the economy. In this light discuss whether discretion is a better way to run monetary policy than following a rule - Essay Example The econometric discretion policy evaluate on fiscal and monetary policy by using the new rational expectation method of macroeconomics. This has been the substantial subject cause for increased recent year’s research. A number of factors have provided a motivation for the research. The critique of Lucas showed that traditional discretion econometric policy was flawed in its evaluation. This was supported by the fact that recognition of rational expectation is not an implication of monetary policy effectiveness as was being potted by the discretion policy. On the other hand, the finding that credibility has significant benefits which are empirical and the demonstration of time inconsistency is a blatant proof that policy rule are superior to discretion policy (Baumol & Blinder, 2011, p.41). Although it is possible to find precursors of the new policy rule research, the recent analyses have been made possible by estimation and solution techniques which are new in the wide economy equilibrium model. The empirical model development of consistent expectation of prices and wages dynamic is another key proof factor of policy rule applicability. Also, the multi-country empirical framework abilities to efficiently handle the international cash flows in the world market as a factor of occurrence has been a proof too for policy rule’s effectiveness than discretion. However, the policy rules preferred in this research description paper have generally not involved fixed settings for the monetary policy instruments. The instruments not involved are such as the phenomenon of constant growth rate for the supply of money. In this context, the rules have been proved to be responsive by calling for the changes in the supply of money, monetary base and the short term interest rates these callings are to provide a response to the changes in the levels of price